It is exceedingly rare for a meteor to hit the earth as most burn up while entering the atmosphere. So it was extraordinary when it happened twice in two weeks, albeit in separate parts of the world.

A meteorite, approximately 2.6 inches in diameter and weighing around 225 grams, pierced through the roof of a family home in the state of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, on April 25. Three other meteorites hit the town at the same time. Most were splinters, but one meteorite, about ten times the size of the one that struck the house and weighing 3.5 kilograms, landed just 500 meters away in a nearby garden.

“There was a lot of banging and rumbling outside. We thought lightning had struck. Then we went outside and saw that two pieces of the roof tiles were lying down in the yard in front of the entrance,” the owner of the home told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Thirteen days later, a similar event occurred on the other side of the planet. A metallic object believed to be a meteorite pierced the roof of a home in Hopewell Township, New Jersey. The meteorite dented the floor, but no injuries were reported. The space rock was approximately 4 inches by six inches. It is believed to result from the Eta Aquarids meteor shower, an annual celestial event. 

While rare, meteors shattering domestic tranquility are not unheard of. Last November, a meteorite is believed to have hit a house and set it on fire in California, and the previous month, a meteorite smashed through the roof of a house in British Columbia, Canada. 

Significant meteor impacts are rare, but they have occurred with dramatic results in recent years. The Tunguska Event in 1908 flattened 2,000 square kilometers of Siberian forest. More recently, in February 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteor, weighing approximately 12,000 metric tons, exploded over Russia, injuring 1,500 people and damaging 7,200 buildings. The meteor went undetected before it exploded.

Meteors were already known to the Talmudic sages. In the tractate of Berachot (58b), Shmuel said, “The paths of the sky are as clear to me as the paths of my city, Neharde’a, except for comets, that I do not know what they are.”

He then explained that a comet would be the harbinger of the end of days.

“We learn through tradition that a comet does not pass the Orion constellation, and if it does pass Orion, the world will be destroyed.”

Meteor showers may be a harbinger of redemption, similar to the Exodus from Egypt.

“The prophecies, the Talmud, and the Zohar all explicitly describe the astronomical phenomenon that will appear immediately before the Moshiach (Messiah) arrives,” Rabbi Eyal Riess, Director of the Tzfat Kabbalah Center, told Israel365 News. “Asteroids and meteors are clearly among them as signs of change and as elements that bring about the change.”

“Using Jewish sources, we have determined that we are objectively coming to the end-of-days according to the calendar,” Rabbi Riess said. “In kabbalistic terms, we are one hour before sunset. Very soon, the Sabbath of the Messiah will begin.”

Rabbi Riess believed that any astronomical event connected to the Messianic process would bring with it healing and not harm.

“Everything that is happening today, politics and natural phenomena, connects one part of the world to all the others and connects the beginning of time to the end of days,” Rabbi Riess said. “Messiah is part of creation, not destruction, and this is the specific message in these celestial signs.”

The rabbi cited a verse from Isaiah to illustrate this point:

“And the light of the moon shall become like the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall become sevenfold, like the light of the seven days, when Hashem binds up His people’s wounds and heals the injuries it has suffered.” Isaiah 30:26

“The Zohar (the basis of Jewish esoteric learning) describes warring stars as accompanying the Messiah,” Rabbi Riess explained. “A large pillar of flame will also appear, as was seen by the Children of Israel in the desert.”

Rabbi Riess also pointed out that the prophet Joel prophesied astronomical phenomena as signaling the imminent arrival of the Messiah:

“Before the great and terrible day of Hashem comes, I will set portents in the sky and on earth: Blood and fire and pillars of smoke.” Joel 3:3